Field
The present disclosure relates generally to apparatus and methods for transmutation of elements, and in particular, to apparatus and methods for the transmutation of molybdenum-98 to generate technetium-99m.
Description of the Related Art
Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) is a workhorse isotope in nuclear medicine and is widely used in diagnostic medical imaging. Tc-99m is typically used to detect disease and study organ structure and function. Technetium-99m is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (Tc-99) with a half-life of 6 hours and emits 140 keV gamma ray photons when it decays to technetium-99. The gamma rays can be used for medical imaging. The U.S. supply of Tc-99m is generally produced by irradiating highly enriched uranium (HEU) in a reactor, extracting the fission product molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) from the HEU targets, and collecting Tc-99m that is produced when Mo-99 spontaneously beta decays with a half-life of 66 hours.